Changing Color for Negative Data Series in PowerPoint
Charts

Excerpt/Capsule: Are you stuck with the default white
color for negative values in PowerPoint charts? You can learn how you
can change it to any color you want!

By default, PowerPoint 2002 and 2003 use white as the color of any negative series in your charts as shown in Figure 1 below -- I know, this does look very unimaginative and there's a workaround to get over this issue.

Figure 1: Negative figure column

Follow these steps to change the color of any negative data representations in your PowerPoint charts:

With the data series selected, choose the Format | Selected Data Series menu option, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Selected Data Series

This summons the Format Data Series dialog box, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Format Data Series

Assuming you already chose the Invert if Negative option (highlighted in red in Figure 4), click the Fill Effects button to bring up the dialog box that you can see in Figure 5 -- within this dialog box, choose the Pattern tab.

Figure 5: Pattern tab within Fill Effects dialog box

As you can see the foreground color matches the positive columns and the background color matches with the negative columns. Now we can change the background color to the desired color for the negative column.

From the patterns choose the 5% pattern (the top-left, first pattern -- this is most inconspicious pattern) -- and choose a solid color from the background color drop down, as you can see in Figure 6. We chose red since that somewhat seems to go well with the negative concept.

Figure 6: Background color

Apply the changes by clicking OK in both Fill Effects and Format Data Sheet dialog box. This gets you back to your chart.

Figure 7 shows how the chart looks now -- as you can see, the color of the columns are different for positive and negative values. In fact, they are quite the opposite of what we need.

Figure 7: Different column colors

Now open the Fill Effects dialog box (see Figure 5) again, and swap the foreground and background colors. Click OK twice in successive dialog boxes when done . This sets the colors in the chart to the right values.

However, there is still a pattern -- and we can now remove that pattern too! To do that, you will need to make sure that this data series is selected -- then bring up the familiar Format Data Series dialog box (see Figure 4), and select the required color for the positive column. Remember that any change in color you do now only changes the color of the positive columns -- but it also does remove the pattern in the negative column! Click OK to apply.

Figure 8 shows the correct chart with no patterns, and distinctly different colors for positive and negative columns. As you can see from Figure 8, our sample chart has only one data series -- but there's no reason why you cannot use the same steps for any other series if your chart has multiple series.

Figure 8: Chart with changed colors

You can exit the chart editing mode
by clicking anywhere outside the chart area or the datasheet.

Have your ever used keyboard shortcuts and sequences in PowerPoint? Or are you a complete keyboard aficionado? Do you want to learn about some new shortcuts? Or do you want to know if your favorite keyboard shortcuts are documented?